.fl95 C5 







1900 


1 


Copy 1 


r!r »M 


raOREST BY THE RIEA 




A POEM 




BY ALLISON R. LAWSHE 



i 



HE ffflTY AND THE fHOREST BY THE |RpA 



l HE ffl 



^ 



A POEM 



/ 

By Allison R. Lawshe 



With a Drawing by the Author. 



THE RAIN-DROP PRESS 

Trenton, N. J. 

1900. 



■\ 



Z1 



68287 






| OCT 3» J 1900 

Copyright entry 

0N9 COPY. 
OKOtS DiViSION, 



L 



23 19UU 



.r\<\sC» 



Copyright 1900 by Allison R. Lawshe. 



Price, by mail, 25 cents. 



I 



NCE when slow the sun was sinking 
Drowsy, dreamy to his rest, 



Gleaming soft-eyed loving glances 

From his couch in the golden west- 
Gleaming farewells, good-night kisses 
From his couch in the amber west, 
I was standing on the lonely shore of a softly-singing sea- 
Standing in rapture beside a sweet and low-voiced sea 
That sang a strangely mysterious melody. 



IS 



m 



ND while listening to the sad-toned 
Singing wavelets on that shore, 



I beheld a wondrous City 

Glowing golden far before— 
Fabled, fair and famous City 

Glowing golden on that shore. 
Gazing with long looks of rapture on that City by the Sea 
I the seraphim saw sailing in mad ecstacy— 
Sailing singing o'er that City by the Sea. 



Ill 



PROW from out the golden distance, 
Imi O'er the voicing waters wide, 
Winged a Form, a Figure toward me 

That alighted at my side? 
And I looked upon this Figure- 
Looked and, wondering, softly sighed: 
"Thou belongest to those Beings in that City fair to see- 
That beauteous City— tell oh ! tell me what its name may be. 
Spoke the Figure: "'Tis the City by the Sea. 



tt * 



IV 

IS the City where the beauteous 
Souls, the seraphim, abfde; 



It is built of marble castles 

Cloudward reaching, rainbow dyed, 
And its happy hosts, joy-haunted, 
Throng this City radiant-eyed— 
Throng its streets and fill the air in which they float in ecstacy 
With such wondrous music that the rebellious winds and sea, 
When brewing evil, are charmed from their conspiracy. " 



V 



B~ HEN I said: "0 Figure fairest 
__ On its beauties thou dost dwell, 
And I thank thee, but, I pray thee, 

Do its name most truly tell — 
Tell the name of this fine City 

Where these happy Beings dwell. " 
And the Figure, while the shadows shifted o'er the darkening lea, 
Answered: "Tis the City, beauteous City by the Sea; 
Tis the fair, the flowered City by the Sea. 



VI 

"'! SI IS the City where the sou!s that 

iBJil With unending joy are blessed 
Live and work but for the Truest, 

Knowing that the True is best, 
Knowing that the True is wisest— 

Beauty-Hushed by Beauty's quest: 
And these Beings once were burden-bearing humans faithfully, 
Trustfully through each trial and sorrow striving true to be — 
Seeking, searching for this City by the Sea. " 



ID 



VII 

HEN the robe of Night down falling 
Wrapped in gloom the fair display, 
And the heavens, sable curtained, 

Cloaked from view each starry ray, 
So that blackness, inky blackness, 
Held no trace of banished Day; 
And a wild and woeful wailing floated from the summer sea- 
Wild and weird, unwelcome wailing wandered up to me 
From that dark and drear and dismal summer sea! 



VIII 



a 



OW beside the sea a Porest 

d and wide (and Known to Fame) 
Lay, and from this gloom-girt Forest 

Hideous, ghoulish howlings came— 
Hideous, hellish, heart-stilling howlings, 
Nameless here,— they have no name! 
And I looked and lo! a lurid, blood-red glare glid o'er the lea, 
Gleamed and glared from out this gloom-girt Forest by the Sea- 
This ghastly, evil-brooding Forest by the Sea! 





IX 




RljTRAIGHT I asked the Figure by me, 
gj Asked with faint and failing breath : 




"What oh! what can mean this marvel? 


What this horror — means it death ? 


Or (help Heaven!) means it torture- 


Is this Hell?" The Figure saith: 


" 'Tis the drear and dreadful Forest where the ghouls in hellish glee- 


Gnome and devil — nightly revel, revel frenziedly— 


Revel in this reeking Forest by the Sea. " 










AID he further while the wailings, 
Wild and weird, did rend the gloom: 
"And these grinning ghouls and ghastly 

In this lurid Forest-tomb, 
Evil-formed by Evil seeking, 

Shadowed by a woeful doom, 
They, like the seraphim, once did walk (but walked ah ! blindly) 
In the homes and haunts of men,— blindly, blindly, blindly,— 
Howling demons in this Forest by the Sea!" 






XI 

HEN the vision quickly vanished; 
Vanished, too, the Figure fair, 
And I stood bathed in the sunlight's 

Last faint ruby ruddy glare, 
While there floated sweetest incense 
To me o'er the twilight air- 
Sweetest incense and the soft song of the silken summer sea- 
Silken, sad-toned, soft-voiced sea singing rapturously 
Of what strange, unknown, unknowable mystery! 



J 



XII 

ND I muttered, thinking, dreaming, 
Divining what no tongue can tell: 
"I myself am judge and culprit; 

' I Myself am Heaven and Hell ? ' 
Heaven is the increased nature; 

The dwarfed and stunted soul is Hell. " 
"Heaven is the increased nature" came a murmur up to me? 
"The dwarfed and stunted soul is Hell" came an echo from the sea- 
From the restless, ruby-flashing summer sea. 



